EU considers response to Norway attacks

The European Union has begun a review of its counter-terrorism efforts in response to attacks by a right-wing extremist in Norway on Friday (22 July) that left 76 people dead. More than 90 people were injured in the attack and several are in a critical condition.

Poland, the current holder of the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, has convened emergency meetings of two Council working groups that deal with counter-terrorism. No date has been set.

Europol, the EU’s police co-operation agency in The Hague, has set up a taskforce to study possible links by Anders Behring Breivik, the attacker, to far-right groups elsewhere in Europe. Behring Breivik, who holds anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim views, appears to have been acting alone, although the exact circumstances of Friday’s attacks remain unclear.

Behring Breivik appeared in a closed court session today (25 July) and reportedly claimed to be part of a bigger network.

Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, called Knut Storberget, Norway’s minister of justice, at the weekend to offer the Commission’s support to the ongoing investigation. “We are trying to understand if there is any link between [the attacker] and others,” a Commission official said.

Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s counter-terrorism co-ordinator, said on Saturday that the EU would assist Norway if necessary in establishing whether the attacker had links to EU-based groups.

Europol’s 2011 situation report on terrorism noted the “diminished impact of right-wing terrorism and extremism in the EU” but noted the increased professionalism of right-wing groups and their use of the internet.

In its annual terrorist threat assessment, published in March, Norway’s Police Security Service noted a spike in anti-Islamic activism which, it said, “may” lead to increased use of violence.

Britain’s National Security Council met today to assess the country’s preparedness following Friday’s attack. It offered technical support to Norway and said it would follow any leads on possible connections between Behring Breivik and groups or individuals in the UK.

Norway is not a member of the EU but is part of the EU’s Schengen area of borderless travel. Storberget attends regular meetings of EU interior ministers.

The populist, anti-immigrant Progress Party, currently Norway’s main opposition party, has forced the government to adopt tighter immigration rules. Behring Breivik was once a member of the party, whose leader, Siv Jensen, described the attacks as “horrible and cowardly”.

Norway has had a relatively low level of immigration until recently. Non-citizens make up less than 3% of the population, around double that in Oslo, the capital.